Gayle's Bakery is a living and a lifestyle

Cynthia Liu

Published 4:00 am, Friday, June 25, 2004

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

{pngayle25} / for: {friday} Gayle and Joe Ortiz, the chef-owners of Gayle's Bakery and Rosticceria in Capitola. No photo credit submitted. For further caption information contact Dave Murphy in the Friday section. less

{pngayle25} / for: {friday} Gayle and Joe Ortiz, the chef-owners of Gayle's Bakery and Rosticceria in Capitola. No photo credit submitted. For further caption information contact Dave Murphy in the Friday ... more

Gayle's Bakery is a living and a lifestyle

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

When Gayle and Joe Ortiz started their Capitola business in 1978, Gayle's Bakery was about 800 square feet. Now it covers 10,000 square feet and includes a cafe and Rosticceria, an Italian deli with rotisserie.

The bustling business serves 2,000 to 3,000 customers a day and has a payroll of 120. The facility has been remodeled nine times and has taken over the space occupied by an adjacent shoe store, restaurant and post office.

"During America's culinary awakening, they were one of the first bakeries to bring European-caliber baked goods to the public," said master baker Peter Reinhart, the award-winning author of "The Bread Baker's Apprentice."

Elementary school in Oakland opens time capsule from 1927San Francisco Chronicle

Brides of March walk through San FranciscoSan Francisco Chronicle

WildCare rescues Western scrub jay from rodent glue trapWildCare

The Regulars: The CarpenterJessica Christian

Massive fire in San Francisco's North BeachDavid Essling

"It's the kind of place that even people on a diet will say, 'I'll split this with you,' and it's worth it," said Peggy Aoki, a private chef and cooking teacher in Mountain View. "You can tell that everything has been made with care and is homemade -- it's not contracted out."

The bakery goes through two tons of butter, one ton of chocolate and 50, 000 eggs a month. The signature items are the Francese bread and marzipan- covered Princess Cake.

From enchiladas to barbecued ribs, there are about 100 items offered at any time from a rotating repertoire of hundreds of items. "Our variety is at once our downfall and our redemption," Joe said.

Gayle believes they would make more profit if they edited the line, but they continue to offer the vast selection for the benefit of their customers.

"Joe and Gayle have been extremely influential in the artisan bread movement, and the bakery has been a model for many people who are trying to create their own cafes," Reinhart said.

Gayle's success has spawned several local bakeries, such as Beckmann's, Golden Sheath and Kelly's Pastries, but the Ortizes do not feel threatened -- "they keep us on our toes, to be good or better," Gayle said.

"Gayle and Joe are both truly extraordinary people and a great example of the artistic eclecticism that one finds in Santa Cruz," said Randall Grahm, proprietor of Bonny Doon Vineyards.

Gayle and Joe had seen each other on campus at San Jose State University, but were introduced by a mutual friend. He majored in English and journalism and spent two years at Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco before adopting a bohemian lifestyle as a musician and house painter.

Gayle, who left the university after about a year, was working as a waitress when she read an article on croissants in Gourmet magazine and became obsessed with them. She would bake in the morning, then go to her waitressing job.

Joe learned how to cook at Jack Lirio's cooking school in San Francisco in lieu of payment for a painting job there. Gayle, whose grandfather owned a butcher shop and great-grandfather owned a bakery and deli, credits Braker with teaching her how to bake.

When they decided to open the bakery, Gayle's father, Jack Tomlinson, who had owned a restaurant equipment business, said they should have bread in addition to pastries. So Joe was put in charge of the bread. Gayle likes the exacting nature of pastry while Joe says, "I like the organic process of something that is alive."

The couple would get up at 2 a.m. and work until 8, then Joe would go house painting while Gayle would continue baking. Around 6 p.m., he would return and help her clean up. They started making a profit in their fourth month. After a couple of years, they earned enough so Joe could quit painting.

"Joe had every intention of helping me for the first year, then getting out," Gayle said. Instead, he fell in love with bread and eventually he and Gayle wrote two cookbooks, "The Village Baker," focusing on bread, and "The Village Baker's Wife," focusing on pastries.

The croissants were their signature item when they opened the bakery, but Braker said that because of Gayle's generous nature, "She not only gave me her recipe for croissants, she welcomed me with open arms into her bakery to show me how she made them."

The Ortizes visit Europe once a year for inspiration. During every trip, they would delegate tasks at Gayle's. And when they returned, they would take fewer tasks back.

After 10 years, Gayle and Joe were able to delegate all the day-to-day tasks. They credit partner Louisa Beers, who has been at Gayle's for 20 years, with running the business. They now experiment at home, then bring in recipes.

With her free time, Gayle served as mayor of Capitola in 2002 and has been a City Council member for four years. Trent Wong, who was the innkeeper at the Applelane Inn, has been a customer at Gayle's for 25 years and admires the Ortizes' involvement in the community.

Meanwhile, in his free time, Joe has been writing and scoring food-themed musicals. "Bread: The Musical," which ran in 2002 and 2003, was about a baker who neglects his wife in his quest for "the perfect loaf" and how they become estranged and reunited.

"Kitchen Kabaret," starring Lori Rivera and Juni Bucher, ran this spring at Michael's on Main restaurant in Soquel, with songs performed between courses. It's about two women who meet at a bar and discover that they are seeing the same man. Love and food come together in numbers such as "We Took It Off the Menu" and "Oysters Anytime of the Day."

Bucher said of Joe's songwriting, "He really vocalizes a feminine perspective in a wonderful and genuine way, which is pretty incredible."

Joe credits that insight to being married to Gayle for more than 30 years.

"I've learned to use Gayle as a sounding board for ideas," he said. "She has an amazing sense of what's proper in a situation."

Finding Gayle's

Gayle's Bakery and Rosticceria is at 504 Bay Ave. in Capitola. For details, call (831) 462-1200 or see www.gaylesbakery.com.